When it comes to overstrung, antisocial characters, Jake Gyllenhaal sure knows how to pick (and breathe new life into) them. We all grieve in our own way, and after surviving a car crash that claims the life of his wife, Davis Mitchell (Gyllenhaal), a beastly investment banker at the top of his game, spends the greater portion of Demolition vacillating between waging war against a vending machine company and going through a fairly dire deconstructionist phase. As the concerned father-in-law, Chris Cooper is given little to do but look on in horror. It’s love interest Naomi Watts, the customer care rep who talks him down, and her precocious son (scene-stealing Judah Lewis) that bring feeling to a life otherwise predisposed to pulverizing the past. Not one for subtlety, this time around, sledgehammer-wielding director Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyer’s Club, Wild) was kind enough to use only one hand. (2016) — Scott Marks
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